Red : The Colour of Blood, The Colour of Love
by Knanaki
Summary: This one-shot is on how I had hoped the fight of mokuran turned out. it's mostly a rehash of the fight scene with a little extra at the end. it has a slight tinge of romance in it but i would rather refer to it as strong friendship. [To/Fuu, if you must h


Author's rambling : this is a silly little romance fic about Tokiya and Fuuko I've been wanting to do for a while now but I never really had a nice ending until now. It's a one-shot about what I think the fight between Mokuran and iceman should have been followed by. Just bare in mind that judging by my previous [unbelievably, unforgivably, ridiculously poor] attempt at fanfiction, I like to torture a certain main character…heh heh heh…either way I hope you enjoy the fic.

Red: The Colour of Blood, the Colour of Love

Wild maniacal laughter ringed throughout the stadium, drowning out the cheers of the spectators, until everybody fell silent save for the inhuman creature that stood firm and rooted to the centre of the stage. The gnarled surface of his tree's bark forming two curiously deformed yet vaguely recognisable eyes and a crooked grin framed by curvy wooden lips. His crown of branches was a dead skeleton of brown, void of leaves; as if to show his own dislike for all that lived. Strangely enough, this seemingly lifeless husk moved with a vigour unknown to plants. His numerous appendages fanned out and snaked slowly towards his opponent. 

The demented cackling ceased as suddenly as it had started, the face on the trunk formed a smirk of sorts as the creature spoke in a haunting timbre voice,

" So, this is supposed to be the most level-headed member of team Hokage, huh? What a fool you are! Do you think I'll really keep my end of the bargain of releasing the boy even if you throw down your pathetic weapon? YOU ARE TOO GULLIBLE!" He shouted as he lashed out at the unsuspecting opponent who stood before him. The thousands of branches and roots he possessed, thick and thin alike were used as whips. Posing damage comparably more severe than being whipped by the cat-o-nine-tails repeatedly, he lashed and slashed at the young man who crouched before him. 

It was evident that this was a one-sided fight from the moment the teen had relinquished the use of his weapon. Barely given enough time to recover and get back on his feet, he was beaten back down by a particularly thick brunch that came crashing down on his back. Coughing up a small amount of blood, he pushed himself up on all four shaking limbs, only to be slashed in the side by a thinner branch throwing him on his back and causing him to skid across the battle arena. The friction burned his side and the slash had cut through his suit causing a graze on his pale flesh colouring it crimson as blood leaked out of the open wound. He was certain he had a serious internal injury evident from the blood he coughed up earlier, if he was 'lucky' maybe a few broken bones as well. He hurt all over some wounds would throb dully, others would flare up into blinding white-hot pain the moment he moved, but he knew no matter how much pain he endured, it would not bring Kouganei back. _Just a little while more…but I don't know if I can last a little while more…_his train of thoughts suddenly broken by a violent coughing fit. He clutched his sides as the pain began to consume his senses. Without prior warning he felt himself roughly hoisted up into the air by a thick branch which coiled itself tightly round his neck, it all but suffocated him to death. He felt himself being lifted higher, he would have opened his eyes but it hurt too much to do so. As suddenly as he was lifted up, he was dropped. His descend to the ground was anything but smooth. As soon as he was released, he was hit repeatedly by massive branches that felt very much like heavy punches. Not an inch of his lissom frame was spared because following that was continuous whipping from the thinner ones. The feeling of being whipped senseless nearly drove him mad with pain. Small gasps and grunts managed to escape him for these 'whips' not only had to power to slash through skin and leave thin gashes but the ability to land heavy bruising as well.

When he hit the ground, the cool air he inhaled revived him a little. _It's now or never…_mustering all off his remaining strength, he pushed himself off the floor and stood as steadily as he could, his trained mind blocking out the immense pain that cascaded over his senses momentarily. In a crisp icy voice, 

"I'm asking you one last time, are you going to give Kouganei up or not?"

The only response he received for his efforts was a disbelieving guffaw to his seemingly groundless threat. As if to prove a point, Mokuran shot out his weapon-like branches in an all-out attack this time aiming for his opponents heart in hope of inflicting a mortal wound. His face still carved into a malicious sneer, it was not until he spotted a slight smirk form on the other man's thin lips that he realised something was amiss. With a look of surprise etched onto the trunk, the round black orbs he had for eyes swivelled from left to right to left again before making a cowardly whimper as his eyes shot back to eye his adversary. Quivering in fright, his month opened and closed forming soundless words; only one syllable was audible,

"H-how?" he managed to stutter.

The man's smirk widened a little as he slowly strode forward to retrieve Ensui, swiftly pulling the ice-bladed sword out of the ground without paying heed to the frozen 'tree' that stood in the centre of the arena like an ugly ice-carving at a dinner party. With angonising slowness, he proceeded to explain,

"Trees like most living things hibernate in the winter, they stop carrying out vital life functions yet still remain alive." Pausing slightly here, he shot Mokuran a deadly glance before continuing, " but more importantly, trees have no sense of touch, which is why you didn't sense the attack, until it was too late." He breathed out menacingly, his pale blue eyes like shards of ice. Bringing his sword up, he moved himself into stance and his muscles tensed before launching his attack on his immobile opponent. The human-tree, remembering that the boy was held prisoner within his trunk, tried to change his mind by shouting out in a feeble defence,

"But you still don't know where I've hid the boy! You might hurt him if you choose to attack me!" for a brief moment there, he regained some of his haughtiness. In fact for a **very **brief moment only. 

"I already know where Kouganei is." Came the simple reply.

The ice on his trunk and bark seemed like nothing compared to the frightening cold that seemed to seep into his soul.

The man hesitated no more, charging with Ensui in poised to deliver a deathblow, then as if on cue, the gold crucifix Kouganei always wore around his neck flash through the trunk giving away his position. In a swift strike, he had split Mokuran's tree body in half, shattering it in the process sending frozen pieces of wood flying every which way. The spotlights shining overhead, made it seem like he was jumping through a blizzard of glimmering diamonds with Kouganei's limp form tucked safely under one arm. In the background, Mokuran had his back arched as his mouth flew open to release a glass-shattering scream.

The ice swordsman landed with his back facing Mokuran. Panting heavily and severely injured, Mokuran begged his indifferent opponent for mercy as he half-turned to face him. With a derisive snort, and a soft 'hn', he back faced Mokuran once more and continued to stalk off stage. With an unseen sneer, Mokuran tried to seize the win by attacking him in the back with his unfrozen roots. The deadly roots had nearly met their mark when swordsman suddenly turned around with a knowing smile and a sadistic gleam in his eyes. He fluidly evaded the attacks and rushed forward with an upward slash inflicting a near-fatal gash across Mokuran's torso. The freak of nature was down and out for the count, bleeding profusely from the chest wound. He stalked off stage with Kouganei slung over his shoulder as the referee announced the winner in the background,

"Shousha, Mikagami sensui!"

The crowd came to life with cheers and some jeers depending on which team they were supporting. But that was the last thing on Mikagami's mind, even as his team-mates rushed up to congratulate him at the stairs and collect Kouganei. _The winner has been announced, I've done my par…_then he momentarily blacked out falling forward. It was due to Recca's quick reflexes that he managed to catch Mikagami and support him before he fell face first. A soft groan followed by a growl was heard from the weakened team-mate as he regained consciousness almost immediately. He shook his head in an attempt to clear the gray and black spots dancing in his vision as he clumsily stumbled down the stairs. He had lost a lot of blood during his fight with Mokuran. As it was, a large portion of the stage was decorated with spots of his blood from his wounds. He stumbled a bit more and nearly fell to his side when Fuuko rushed up in time to support him. 

"Man! You got it bad! Why don't you rest a while, I'll go check if it's alright to bring both you and Kouganei to the sick bay." She spoke rapidly and in his dazed state, it sounded more like muffled mumbling making her words almost indistinguishable. She had led him the side and allowed him to rest, leaning against the wall for support. The black spots seemed to multiply until they covered his entire vision throwing him into complete darkness. Blood from his wounds still flowed freely as he slumped forward in a dead faint.

As things turned out, since Domon and herself were already disqualified from the day's match, they would be the ones to bring their injured teammates to the sick bay. Yanagi wanted to follow them because she could not stop worrying about Kouganei's condition. 

The threesome trudged down the dingy hallway, two of which were heavily laden with extra weight. The two causalties from the previous battle. Domon carried Mikagami in a cradle carry. He moved at normal pace since his wiry framed teammate barely weighed a thing to him. Fuuko was carrying the lighter of the two, Kouganei. Still he was a little more than she could handle so her grumbling could be heard all the way to the infirmary. 

From the moment Fuuko put Kouganei on the bed, Yanagi began fussing around him. The first thing she did was let her healing energy flow into him to supplement his lost energy and heal any internal injury he might have sustained. She sat by his bedside watching over him, he felt like a younger brother to her since he was the youngest of the Hokage. It was not until Domon pulled back the curtains dividing the two patients that both Fuuko's and Yanagi's attention was turned to the other patient, who actually was the worse off of the two. Yanagi gasped in shock when she saw the colour of Mikagami's skin. He was so very pale, paler than usual and his breathing was laboured, not a good sign. Both girls immediately rushed to the downed senior's side. Yanagi immediately did the same for Mikagami as she had done for Kouganei. However, before she could completely finish healing him, she began to sway from over exertion. Fuuko held Yanagi's shoulders to stable her but Yanagi collapsed onto Fuuko, and began to cry softly. Through her distraught sobs, Fuuko managed to hear,

" I…it's all my fault…m-my negligence…I-I should've treated M-Mikagami-senpai first…"

Fuuko wrapped her arms around Yanagi and stroked her chestnut-coloured hair smoothening it and hushing her at the same time,

"Shh…shh…it's not your fault, you did all you could, one of them would not have been fully treated either way. In a way, Mikagami would have been happier if it was him." Looking straight at Domon, she suggested in a soft tone,

"Maybe you should bring Yanagi back to the ring, to Recca, I'll look after things here," then with a cheeky grin she added, " I don't think you'd know anything about treating wounds would you?"

After nodding agreeably to her first suggestion, he frowned, a little miffed that she had guessed right his incompetence in the situation at hand. He would have raised his voice in a whine-like retort but he didn't want to disturb the injured, this had to be one of those rare moments where he showed that he had a brain of sorts. As he turned to leave and escort Yanagi back to Recca, he stopped when he heard Fuuko call him back,

" Er…before you go could you help me with something first?"

Upon whispering her request, she scrunched her face up and put her hands together and pleaded with Domon to understand. At first he went wide-eyed, and nearly screamed his vehement refusal to assist but soon relented upon seeing the necessity of it all.

*****

When he awoke, he ached from head to toe. Every fibre of his being still throbbed with the pain from his fight with Mokuran. He turned in his sleep trying to get into a more comfortable position when he realised something, a very alarming something actually. _Nani?!…I'm in the buff! _He sat up suddenly and looked down at himself. Apart from the sparse bandages that were wrapped over his various injuries on his arms, torso and legs, he really was not wearing much else! Thank goodness there was at least a blanket. The colour drained from his face when he heard a very familiar giggle come from behind him. Slowly he turned to face it's source. She sat in the visitor's chair with her legs crossed and one hand clamped over her mouth trying hard to muffle her own laughs. He scowled slightly when she finally calmed down enough to remove her hand from her mouth. Slowly she stood up and walked over to his bed and sat on it, facing him. She spoke first,

"You should have seen the look on your face…that was the most emotion I've ever seen on it…pure shock." She did not sound the least bit cheeky or joking, in fact she sounded too serious for comfort and unknowingly that caused him to blush a little. The cute pink blush on his pale cheeks was comical especially when it deepened as he opened his mouth to ask her the next question.

"Did you…?" he left it hanging hoping she would know what he wanted to ask.

She glanced briefly behind her looking him up and down before bringing her eyes level with his once more a blush of her own staining her cheeks.

"Nah…Domon undressed you, I did the bandaging though…"

Then without warning, she leaned forward, enveloping him in a soft embrace. She felt him tense and waited for him to relax. Then she pulled back to look at him, his eyes held uncertainty and doubt. He had not hugged her back, instead his hands were on his lap the whole time. Still blushing slightly, he looked down unable to look her straight in the eyes. He asked in a voice so soft you would have missed it if you were not straining to hear,

"What was that for?"

She smiled a little, it was a sweet endearing smile that melted his heart, a little, when he gave her a sidelong glance. 

"For everything you've done so far," then with a wistful look in her eyes, she continued, " and perhaps for the future as well…" 

Suddenly she stood up with her back facing him, she spoke something she had been wanting to say since he showed up at Kurei's mansion that day when they were in their hour of need,

"You're not as cold as you like to pretend you are. You never had to pretend and with us, with me; you don't need to." She flashed him another one of those sincere smiles before exiting the room.

OWARI

Some more author's ramblings:

I would really like to know if you think the characters are out of character in any way at all. I apologise before hand if they are. This was a spur of the moment felt like writing fic. And for once I managed to do a one-shot! Congratulate me! No lah! Actually I wanted to say that since this is a one-shot fic, it is much harder to get reviews as compared to series fics. So I'd really like to say that if you feel that I've written a story that is good enough for you and you like it and you think that it was really worth your time reading it then please drop me a review I'd really like a real gauge for how well I really write so I know if I should further torment you readers with my atrocious writing style and lousy out-of-character fics. If it is really that bad than don't review please I only want the truth…thanx for spending time on this unworthy fic.

Heh heh, I guess those of you who read my previous fics would have noticed it by now that I'm very amused with the idea of Mikagami being the all calm and collected mr.cool when it comes to everything except love…well it's just an idea I like toying with if any of you would like to correct me in this aspect please feel free to contact me via email I would love to hear the reasons as to why I'm wrong. The other thing I'd like to mention is it would be really nice if there were no flames but if you feel that you must flame for some reason, feel free to. I'll read it anyway. ^_^


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